The trials and tribulations of having an eco house built - and then living in it!

Saturday, 14 May 2011

End of week fourteen

Although neither of the two normal views look any different, at first glance, take a look at how the house looks from the road and you can see the roof has begun.

A close-up shows a view of the second floor rooms that only Father Christmas or a passing bird will see in the future (hopefully the rooms will look a little more homely then). The roof beams are made of recycled timbers - hence the mosaic effect on close-up.

Since that picture was taken the carpenters have started laying the roofing boards. They are being slotted together rather like a jigsaw and form a dense, warm base for the rest of the roof. You can check out the manufacturer's website at http://www.natural-building.co.uk/pavatex_roof_systems.htm.

If you zoom into this picture you can get an idea of the boards' texture, which is like a cross between balsa wood and hand-made paper. The website says they are made of waste products from wood and I'm told that this basically means recycled newspapers.

In one sense I'm quite relieved that we won't have a ceiling comprised of dodgy tabloid pages but part of me was expecting that the rooms on the top floor would look like the home of the original eco warriors (courtesy of wikipedia):